1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to protective helmets designed to protect the user from potential impacts to the head during bicycling, skiing, snowboarding, and other sporting adventures. Specifically, the present invention relates to a protective helmet providing improved ambient airflow throughout the interior of the helmet using a unique ported and adjustable fluid airflow system.
2. Background of the Invention
Athletes and outdoor enthusiasts alike have long recognized the importance of wearing protective head gear or helmets when engaged in sporting events such as bicycling, rollerblading, skiing, snowboarding, or various other sporting adventures where there exists a risk of fatal or even minor injury through impacts to the head.
Early protective helmets were bulky and unattractive while providing minimal protection to the user due to the inability of manufacturers to construct a protective helmet having sufficient impact attenuation properties. While better than not wearing any protective helmet at all, these early helmets were subject to hairline fractures and significantly decreased impact attenuation properties upon a first impact, often resulting in the helmet having to be discarded.
In addition, these early protective helmets did not provide adequate means for ventilation, which would cause the user to perspire profusely and to lose critical energy. Moreover, designers and manufacturers of protective helmets wishing to implement some type of ventilation system into protective helmets were faced with the problem of maintaining the structural integrity of the helmet as it was often necessary to place apertures in the shell of the helmet itself to provide for ambient airflow and ventilation into the interior of the helmet.
As athletes and outdoor enthusiasts become more sophisticated, there is a corresponding increased demand for more sophisticated equipment. Users of protective helmets are continually seeking lighter, more aerodynamically configured helmets that provide maximum comfort and ventilation without sacrificing the ultimate in protective capabilities. In response, the design and manufacturing technology of protective helmets has undergone, and continues to undergo, significant changes. Advanced technology and manufacturing capabilities have led to advanced protective helmets having superior protective qualities and ventilation means or systems. Today's protective helmets are lighter, sleeker in appearance, and equipped with more sophisticated ventilation systems to provide the user greater ambient airflow into the interior of the helmet, all of this without sacrificing the structural integrity of the protective helmet.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,176 discloses a bicycle helmet having a configured and situated front intake vent or a configured and situated rear exit port or exit ports, or both, such that the front vent and/or rear port or ports can provide for improved movement of air over the wearer's head while retaining sufficient structural integrity to provide adequate head protection. In one general aspect the invention features a bicycle helmet that includes a helmet body having a plurality of vents, including a front vent that is wider than high. In another general aspect, the invention features a bicycle helmet that includes a helmet body having a plurality of vents, including at least one rear exit port opening outward onto a surface that is below the most rearward margin of the helmet body. However, no means is provided for wherein the user may adjust the ventilation system to suit environmental needs or user preferences.
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,834 discloses an air ventilation helmet having air conducting means formed inside the liner thereof. The air conducting means comprises several air conducting channels directed to the ventilation device. Hence, air can flow through the air ventilation device and into the helmet through the air ducts so as to provide good ventilation. The invention also discloses a device that can be rotated to the back to prevent cold air from flowing into the helmet in winter and to avoid water leakage when it rains. The air ventilation safety helmet comprises a molded helmet body defining a recessed interior for receiving therein the head of the user and an air funnel which is attached to the molded helmet by means of a rubber band, a spring, a screw, or the like. Further, directed to the air funnel, several air ducts are formed inside the liner of the molded helmet to allow air to flow there through. Although providing relatively good ventilation, this invention requires manually attaching an air funnel to the protective helmet to achieve the ventilation. This is cumbersome and time consuming and does not lend itself to adjustment of the ventilation, or specifically the air flow, during the sporting event or activity.
Accordingly, what is needed is a protective helmet having an improved ventilation system that is comfortable, and capable of meeting and/or exceeding minimum safety standards.